Perfect Unison – Chapter 2
"What?" I shouted. They must be playing a practical joke or something. It wouldn't be uncommon for Blake…
"They've got-"
"Yeah, I get it. You're sure?"
"Yeah, we saw it with our own four eyes. But I don't think they saw us." I sighed in relief. At least that was a good thing.
"Where did you see them?"
"Um…a little ways into the forest, I think…how far was it, Blake, like, almost a mile?"
"Probably, it was only a few minutes, not even…" Blake helped him. I nodded.
"How many?" I asked quickly.
"How many what?" asked Jake. After a second: "Oh…you mean the kids? There was one who looked a little older than Hope, one around our age, I think, and then 2 older ones. So four…"
"Four…" If it came to a fight, Hope and Bloom would be pretty useless, and so would their younger one, so probably three on three. It all depended on how powerful they were.
"Are we gonna go see them?" asked Hope, still clutching Bloom's hand. Her gray eyes and long black hair were as pretty as ever as she stared innocently up at me.
"Uh…" was I supposed to know already? Do they expect me to make a decision in a minute? "We're gonna have to decide that, I guess. What do you guys think?" I asked, gesturing to the twins.
"They didn't seem evil or anything…" Blake supplied.
"And the girl your age was kinda pretty," Jake felt the need to add.
"Yeah! So was the black girl!" Blake supplied.
"Blake!" Bloom scolded. He didn't respond.
I was completely undecided. On one hand, they could help us. I mean, we were pretty useless fighters and had been on the run for only a little over a year. But, they could also cause a whole new set of troubles.
I told Bloom to get Hope and the twins into bed, and she went off to do so without saying anything, even though it was only about eight o'clock. However, I could hear the twins as I walked out of the little shack, their complaints fading off into the night as I jumped into the air, letting the dark sky serve as cover.
Landing on the beach, I made a quick survey of my surroundings. The forest behind me seemed quiet, I couldn't see or hear anything, and there was a couple down the beach a few miles, but they were walking in the opposite direction and from what I could tell looked like innocent tourists.
I walked down to where the ocean was currently low tide and stood so the waves just barely brushed against my bare feet. My friends and I rarely had money; we were only able to steal just enough so that we could have clothes and food. Basically, I gave up whatever I could, which leads to having no shoes for the time being. The twins traded off, but I forced Bloom to wear some. That's just the kind of overprotective freak I am.
This other group…now this was something I had never been faced with before. We were weak: I couldn't deny it. And underestimating people never leads to anything good. They could be quite strong even with only four people, so being on their good side would be a must.
Or, we could just simply leave, and settle down, as they all wanted me to. I did know something was going to happen, I should ask Bloom how exactly her powe-
"Aagh!" I yelled as I was sent to the ground by a blow to my head. I got sand in my mouth and attempted to spit it out and sit up only to be greeted with a foot to my throat.
I could feel a wave coming in and seeping through the bottoms of my pants, but I forced myself not to shiver at the cold and squinted up at my attacker.
"Who…who are you?" I choked out.
He – I could tell it was a he now: a tall, pale, boy – ignored me, and instead questioned me.
"What are you doing here? Who do you work for?"
I tried to shake my head but couldn't breathe. I assumed the boy noticed as he loosened the pressure of his shoe on my throat enough so that I could gulp in a small lungful of air. "Nobody," I croaked.
"Quit the act. If you give it up, I let you live. Is it Itex?" My vision was getting clearer and I could see the boy staring at me intently – but for some reason it gave me shivers. It was like he was looking right through me.
"N-no. What's Itex?" He couldn't doubt the absolute sincerity of my voice. Or maybe he could. His skin seemed creepily white in the moonlight – almost ghostly.
"Do you really want to lie? It doesn't seem very smart, in my opinion. But, then again, it doesn't seem smart to let someone just walk up behind you and knock you to the ground now, does it? So, I guess this isn't really a matter of intelligence…"
"Not – lying." I continued to struggle for breath. Ghost-boy rolled his creepy eyes and motioned to someone I couldn't see.
"Hey, uh…Zephyr. Come over here a minute." Zephyr. Odd name. Then again, I can't really be talking. Stunner. One of my friends at the school named me when I was little, before they died. Because I was such a good fighter, my fist stunned the whitecoats, they said.
But I definitely couldn't get a good swing in at this point. I had to wait for help, or find a way to escape from Ghost-boy and this so-called Zephyr.
"Do you think Max would want us to take him?" I heard the new voice that must be Zephyr. It sounded younger. "I mean, she wouldn't want us to kill him, would she?"
"No, not Max, protector of the weak," Ghost-boy said, and then chuckled at some joke I didn't get. "I think maybe we should take him to camp, and then she and Fnick can fight over it."
"There might be more Max; we should get out of here! No, we should stay and check this out .It could be important, Nicky-poo!"
I heard two new, different voices and I tried to get up and look around but was once again forced back down to the sand with a head-jarring impact. Even as my head was swimming I heard Ghost-boy laughing and saying something to Zephyr.
"You get either Max or Fnick and get them here and then have everyone else search the area for an accomplice or something." I wondered who the two guys they kept talking about were…Max and Fnick. Maybe they were the leaders or something.
"Do I have to? You guys always get to do the interesting stuff…" I heard Zephyr whine. At another impatient flick of Ghost-boy's hand he turned to leave.
"'Have everyone else search the area for an accomplice or something!' Yeah, yeah, that's the thanks I get for helping out," I heard Zephyr mumbling as he stalked off, mimicking Ghost-boy's voice perfectly.
"You didn't do anything, so quit complaining, Captain Terror!" Ghost-boy yelled after him.
I let out a gargling sound to show him I couldn't breathe and was rewarded with the pressure on my neck lightening until it fell away.
I made a final attempt at sitting up but was not surprised to be shoved back down, even if it was a little less violently. "What do you want from me?" I asked.
"First of all, I want whatever's in your right pocket.' I dug my hands into my jeans curiously, not remembering what was in there. I pulled out a little walkie-talkie we had found – cough-stolen-cough- and used if we were ever separated. Bloom had hers in the bottom of her backpack, if I remembered correctly.
"This?" I held it out. Ghost-boy grabbed it from my hand quickly and pressed the button.
"Hello? Who is this? Answer me!" Don't answer it Bloom, don't answer it, don't answer it, don't answer it…
All he got was static, so he proceeded to throw it into the ocean. I couldn't very well fight back. I would not give away my friends.
"Do you have anybody with you?"
"No!" I answered too quickly, I could tell. But before he could say anything another tall boy ran from the trees.
"Ig, what's going on? The Gasman said you found somebody like those kids from that swamp before. Did they have a transmitter? We should get out of here…" he trailed off as he came to a stop in front of me. The Gasman. I didn't even want to know.
He looked tall and muscular. I may have been able to take on Ghost-Boy by myself but not the two of them together. This was going to get complicated. They proceeded to drag me off towards the woods and I didn't even bother objecting. Maybe these were the bird kids the twins had told us about; they were certainly tall enough.
I was brought into their camp, and then the questioning began.
Wow…um, that was weird. I should probably stop writing this story. But if genders are still confusing, here they are for you. (although if you read it over the pronouns tend to make it clear…)
Stunner boy
Bloom girl
Twins boys
Hope girl
Okay! Hope that answers questions and review! I know, absolutely nothing happened in the chapter, and I promise I will update "reunited" tomorrow!
